Monday, September 25, 2023

Allen H. Richardson and David E. Richardson on D&C 87:3

  

For behold, the Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations, in order to defend themselves against other nations; and then war shall be poured out upon all nations. (D&C 87:3)

 

On Great Britain being called upon to join the US Civil War:

 

It is a fact of history that as early as May 1861, William Yancy of Alabama was sent to England seeking aid and recognition. In October of the same year, the Confederacy appointed James M. Mason and John Slidell as ambassadors to England and France respectively, to appeal to England for assistance.

 

Though Mason and Slidell did not succeed in securing direct assistance from Great Britain, it is well known that the British, in sympathy with the Confederate cause, allowed two war vessels—the Alabama and the Florida to be built there. These two vessels did immense damage to Northern States shipping. The Alabama alone captured sixty-five merchant vessels and destroyed $10 million worth of property. (Allen H. Richardson and David E. Richardson, 1000 Evidences For The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2 vols. [2d ed.; South Jordan, Utah: Artisan Enterprises, 2011], 1:33)

 

The authors make reference to the following from Thomas Valentine Cooper’s American Politics:

 

The Alabama Claims.

 

During this year the long disputed Alabama Claims of the United States against Great Britain, arising from the depredations of the Anglo-rebel privateers, built and fitted out in British waters, were referred by the Treaty of Washington, dated May 8th, 1871, to arbitrators, and this was the first and most signal triumph of the plan of arbitration, so far as the Government of the United States was concerned. The arbitrators were appointed, at the invitation of the governments of Great Britain and the United States, from these powers, and from Brazil, Italy, and Switzerland. On September 14th, 1872, they gave to the United States gross damages to the amount of $15,500,000, an amount which has subsequently proved to be really in excess of the demands of merchants and others claiming the loss of property through the depredations of the rebel ram Alabama and other rebel privateers. (Thomas Valentine Cooper, American Politics (non-partisan) From the Beginning to Date. Embodying a History of All the Political Parties, With Their Views and Records on All Great Issues, and Tabulated History and Chronological Events (1883), Book 1, p. 197)

 

On other nations being requested to join the Civil War:

 

It is a fact of history that as early as May 1861, the Southern Confederacy sent a number of commissioners abroad to seek recognition and aid from foreign powers. P. A. Ross of Louisiana was sent to France; A. Dudley Mann of Virginia was sent to Holland and Belgium; and T. Butler King of Georgia was sent as a roving missioner with the job of contacting a number of other nations. (Allen H. Richardson and David E. Richardson, 1000 Evidences For The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2 vols. [2d ed.; South Jordan, Utah: Artisan Enterprises, 2011], 1:33)

 

With respect to the overall number of participants and casualties during the Civil War, Benson John Lossing wrote that:

 

The records of the War Department show that on the first of March, 1865, the muster-rolls of the army exhibited an aggregate force of 965,591 men, of whom 602,593 were present for duty, and 132,538 were on detached service. The aggregate force was increased by the first of May, by enlistments, to the number of 1,00,516 of all arms, officers and men. The whole number of men called into the service during the war was 2,656,553. Of these, about 1,4900,000 were in actual service. Of this number, nearly 60,000 were killed on the field, and about 35,000 were mortally wounded. Disease in camps and hospitals slew 184,000. It is estimated that at least 300,000 Union soldiers perished during the war. Full that number of the Confederate soldiers lost their lives; and the aggregate number of men, including both armies, who were crippled, or permanently disabled by disease, was estimated at 400,000. The actual loss to the country, of able-bodied men, in consequence of the Slave-holders' Rebellion, was full 1,000,000. (Benson John Lossing, The Pictorial History of the Civil War in the United States of America, 3 vols. [Hartford: Thomas Belknap Publisher], 3:583)

 

Further Reading:


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